Space shuttle Atlantis mystery object prompts landing postponement

September 20, 2006|By FROM NEWS SERVICES

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA postponed the return of Atlantis for at least a day and examined the shuttle for damage that could prevent it from making the journey home after a mysterious object apparently fell off the ship in orbit Tuesday.

Space agency officials wanted extra time to establish whether the object was a vital piece of the shuttle--such as the tiles that protect it from the blowtorch heat of re-entry--and whether it harmed the spacecraft when it fell away.

Officials were not optimistic they would be able to identify the object, because the possibilities were endless, ranging from harmless ice to crucial thermal protection tiles. But the leading candidate was a plastic space-filler placed between the thermal tiles.

"The question is: What is it? Is it something benign? ... Or is it something more critical we should pay attention to?" said Wayne Hale, space shuttle program manager.

"We want to make sure we're safe to land before we commit to that rather incredible journey through the Earth's atmosphere."

The shuttle has enough supplies to stay in space until Saturday while engineers on the ground figure out whether it can safely return to Earth.

The space agency did not rule out the possibility of a spacewalk to make repairs or, if the spacecraft is too damaged, sending Atlantis's six crew members to take refuge in the international space station and await rescue by another shuttle--a scenario that NASA has been developing ever since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

Before the postponement, Atlantis had been scheduled to touch down just before daybreak Wednesday, when the weather forecast wasn't favorable for landing anyway. The landing time was reset for early Thursday. The incident came near the end of what had been a nearly flawless mission.